Intelligence gathering goes well beyond the NSA

Those who fear the National Security Administration may engage in overreach when it apparently sucks up practically every communication in sight should consider the total U.S. intelligence effort. It’s huge.

America spent almost $54 billion in 2012, probably more now, on intelligence activities, and this does not include a huge military intelligence budget.

There are 16 separate organizations collecting intelligence, including Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps intelligence services in the Department of Defense — and the Coast Guard intelligence organization, strangely within the Department of Homeland Security, which also has its own Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

In addition to the four strictly military intelligence services, there are an additional four organizations within the Defense Department engaged in intelligence activities, including the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and, of course, that by now infamous National Security Agency.

The Treasury Department has its Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. The Justice Department has its FBI’s National Security Branch as well as a separate Office of National Security Intelligence within its Drug Enforcement Administration. The U.S. Energy Department has an Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence(!). The State Department runs its Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

And last but by no means least is the huge Central Intelligence Agency.

In theory all of these organizations should have similar goals — somehow advancing the security of the United States. Structurally, attempts have been made to bring some degree of coordination among all their operations. But it’s hard — indeed impossible — to believe they can succeed in avoiding confusion and overlap.

One can assume that there’s a lot of waste in this huge structure, which includes, according to one count, 854,000 people with top secret clearances. The system is further complicated by having private contractors making up 29 per cent of the intelligence workforce in the U.S., including a private contractor paid to perform security checks on potential employees; some of these security checks Were never performed. A private contractor “performed” the background check on Edward Snowden.